Sir Alex Ferguson bowed out in a crazy tickertape blizzard of goals after one of those “football, b----- hell” type of games, the first 5-5 in Premier League history.

Ferguson still must have been tempted to rev up the hairdryer for one last time, targeting his lax defence for failing to deal with the outstanding Romelu Lukaku.

But this was a day for fond farewells, for a bottle of vintage claret from Steve Clarke and an emotional tribute from the Manchester United throng.

“For 26 years you gave us the world,’’ read one banner, “thanks Fergie”. He walked out to a guard of honour and a standing ovation. He had a joke with the fourth official, Chris Foy, and shook hands with the referee Michael Oliver, who was one year and eight months when Ferguson picked up the reins at United.

History was all around. Alex McLeish was present, a reminder of Ferguson’s Aberdeen glory days.

The United fans were in party mood, chanting “bring on the champions” and waving placards like “FERG13 THE GR38T”, celebrating his respective tally of titles and trophies.

One fan lit a red flare, which was then thrown on the pitch. As the smoke spread, United broke quickly and smoothly in a style so familiar of Ferguson teams.

Michael Carrick and Alexander Buttner combined before the ball was moved wide right to Javier Hernandez, whose cross was headed in by Shinji Kagawa. Reaction to the goal revealed that United fans had acquired seats in the home areas.

In the away section of the Smethwick end, the supporters were calling on their outgoing manager to give them a wave and also sending a welcome to his successor, adapting a classic from West Midlands’ finest, Slade.

“So come on David Moyes; play like Fergie’s boys; we’ll go wild, wild, wild,” they sang. No pressure.

They had much to sing about. Antonio Valencia then swept in a low ball that the stretching Jonas Olsson turned past Ben Foster. United countered again, the overlapping Buttner drilling the ball across Foster and in.

West Brom had forgotten to disband their guard of honour. Three up in 30 minutes, Ferguson’s leaving-do was going with a swing from his perspective.

The United fans feasting on this spree have seen countless goals in the Ferguson era since John Sivebaek got the ball rolling on Nov 22, 1986.

So many famous goals, including Mark Robins’ crucial intervention against Nottingham Forest, Steve Bruce’s headers against Sheffield Wednesday and David Beckham from the halfway line.

One of the best was the 30-pass move that culminated in Teddy Sheringham’s back-heel to Paul Scholes to chip a bemused Panathinaikos keeper.

More recently, they were treated royally during the 2007 skewering of the Roma of Francesco Totti and Daniele de Rossi when Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carrick ran riot.

There was Rooney’s bicycle-kick against Manchester City. There was Ronaldo’s astonishing 35-yarder at Porto and Robin van Persie’s volleyed second against Aston Villa from Rooney’s pass.

Breaking into United’s reverie, West Brom made a contest of it. The testimonial mood on the pitch disappeared. Clarke’s side have done so well this season, playing with organisation and intelligence. Suddenly they remembered that, pulling one back five minutes from the break when James Morrison turned in Graham Dorrans’s cross.

At the interval, the fans had time to catch breath and leaf through the “special edition” programme containing a 38-page homage to the visiting manager. The programme quickly sold out, hardly surprising with one punter bulk-buying 700 copies.

There were photographs of Ferguson starting out at East Stirling, wearing flared trousers. There was a lengthy eulogy “to the greatest club manager in the world” from Bryan Robson, talking of Ferguson’s “brilliant psychology” at motivating players. There was Michael Appleton talking of playing under Ferguson as “the privilege of a life-time”.

Foster spoke of the first time he met Ferguson as being “pretty daunting” but the United manager put him “at ease straight away”. Roy Hodgson, who was present yesterday, praised “a warm human being”.

Scarcely had any half-time reading concluded then Lukaku charged on, scoring from 20 yards and ripping up the Ferguson script. “He comes from Stamford Bridge, he’s bigger than a fridge,’’ chanted the West Brom fans. Ferguson’s side responded as they so often do, hitting back instantly.

Van Persie turned in Valencia’s cross. Then Giggs arrived, taking Kagawa’s pass down the left, taking a quick look up and stroking the ball across for Hernandez to make it 5-2 to United.

Ferguson continued sending on his old favourites. Scholes arrived, warmly greeted by all. United fans sang his name, then rolled back through the Ferguson years, singing of Beckham, Ronaldo, Jaap Stam, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Solskjaer. “There’s only one Bryan Robson,’’ they continued.

The game then went mad in the final nine minutes. Lukaku dribbled through and scored. Youssouf Mulumbu made it 4-5. Normal service resumed with a Scholes booking for a late tackle but West Brom are a determined unit under Clarke.

As United’s defence dithered with four minutes remaining, Lukaku pounced for his hat-trick. To misquote Ferguson, this was squeaky Brom time. The manager associated with late rallies succumbed to one.

At the final whistle, Giggs ushered Ferguson across to the away end. He saluted the United faithful, smiled, turned, gave a wave to his family in the Regis Suite, acknowledged the generous applause of the home supporters and then walked from the stage.

After 1,500 games at United. After 39 years as a manager. It was over.